pelican

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Any of various large, web-footed birds of the genus Pelecanus of tropical and warm regions, having a long straight bill from which hangs a distensible pouch of skin for catching and holding fish.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. Any of various seabirds of the family Pelecanidae, having a long bill with a distendable pouch.

n. A native or resident of the American state of Louisiana.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. Any large webfooted bird of the genus Pelecanus, of which about a dozen species are known. They have an enormous bill, to the lower edge of which is attached a pouch in which captured fishes are temporarily stored.

n. A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A large piscivorous natatorial bird of the family Pelecanidæ and genus Pelecanus, having an enormously distensible gular pouch.

n. A chemical glass vessel or alembic with a tubulated capital, from which two opposite and crooked beaks pass out and enter again at the belly of the cucurbit.

n. A six-pounder culverin.

n. A kind of shot or shell.

n. In dental surg., an instrument for extracting teeth, curved at the end like the beak of a pelican.

n. A hook, somewhat in the shape of a pelican's bill, so arranged that it can be easily slipped by taking a ring or shackle from the point of the hook.

n. In heraldry, a bird with talons and beak like a bird of prey, but always represented with the wings indorsed and as bending her neck in the attitude of wounding her breast with her beak.

The pelican is the image of contemplation and of charity; of love, too, according to Saint Madalene of Pazzi; the sparrow symbolizes penitential solitude; the swallow, sin; the swan, pride, according to Raban Maur; diligence and solicitude according to Thomas de Catimpré; the nightingale is mentioned by Saint